nplaw has taken part in LLG’s Work Experience Week for the past two years. It is a really great offer for students, who often struggle to find any kind of legal work experience, especially since Covid. It’s also a good opportunity for us to showcase the interesting and varied work that we do as local government lawyers and to show that a legal career in local government can be a career of choice.
On each occasion, we have had some very enthusiastic and able students placed with us, selected by LLG. We have always hosted a small group of students online. Online is easier for us than in person, as many of our staff are still working from home for most of the time. We’ve found that it’s quite nice to have more than one student, as we get them to work in pairs and as a group, so they can establish relationships with their fellow students.
LLG has supported us by suggesting activities that we could do with the students and, in the afternoons, LLG runs talks and workshops, so our own time with the students is only limited to the mornings. Things we have done with the participants include: watching parts of a council meeting and discussing the students’ observations; drafting some documents based on a case study; talks from our trainee solicitors and apprentices about their career journeys to date; research tasks; and always ending the week with a presentation about an area of local government law.
The feedback from the students has always been great and we have very much enjoyed hosting them. We’re looking forward to doing it all again in 2023 and hope that your authority will join us!
Kind regards,
Fiona
